The album was Michael's final album of all-new material on Columbia Records until 2004's Patience. Disappointing album sales in the US led to Michael's legal battles against Sony Music, in which he accused the corporation of not fully supporting him as an artist.

After the massive success of Michael's 1987 Faith album, the expectations for his follow-up album were also high. In September 1990, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 was released, receiving mixed-to-positive reviews (with the more dance-oriented Vol. 2 ostensibly scheduled to follow in June 1991). The album was a stark departure from the previous LP, with largely acoustic instrumentation and a sombre intensity in many of the lyrics and melodies.

George Michael wanted to be taken more seriously as a songwriter,[citation needed] which resulted in a more thoughtful, often moody recording. The album peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart. The first single released from the album was "Praying for Time", which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The second single "Freedom '90" reached number 8 in the US, and in early spring 1991, "Waiting for That Day" peaked at number 27 in the US. "Mother's Pride" achieved top 40 success outside the US, but received considerable airplay in the States during the Gulf War, despite its not being released as a single.

Even though the album sold eight million copies worldwide,[2] it was viewed as a commercial disappointment in the US, with barely two million in sales, compared to the multi-platinum success of Faith (which had been certified 7× Platinum for seven million sales the year before).

The album is largely devoted to ballads and folk-styled rock songs, although there are a few dance tracks like "Freedom" and "Soul Free". There was also a remix of "Freedom" that incorporated elements of Soul II Soul's "Back to Life", which was released as a twelve-inch single and received a good deal of club play. Like Faith, each track was produced and arranged by Michael himself.

Michael refused to appear in many of the singles' videos for this album. Accordingly, the video for "Praying for Time" consists of the lyrics projected onto a dark background, while the video for "Freedom" featured several supermodels lip-syncing its lyrics. Directed by David Fincher, who directed Madonna's "Vogue" video, it featured the destruction by fire and explosion of several icons from Michael's recent Faith period.

The follow-up album Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 2 was scrapped for reasons known only to Michael and his record company. Three of the tracks intended for that album appear on the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Dance, while a fourth ("Crazyman Dance") turned up on the B-side of that album's first single, "Too Funky".

The album was reissued on 20 October 2017, across a number of formats, including a 3CD+DVD super deluxe edition box set,[3] after nearly a year-long delay,[4][5] and reached number one in the UK Albums Chart again, 27 years after the album first topped the chart.[6]

The first single from the album, "Praying for Time", written by Michael, reached number one in the US Billboard charts and the top ten in the UK in the summer of 1990. It remained in the Billboard top 40 for ten weeks, and was the last number one solo single from Michael in the US. The second single (third in the United States), "Waiting for That Day", was released a month after the album's release. Owing to a borrowed lyric from The Rolling Stones' hit "You Can't Always Get What You Want", co-writer credits were given to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. It reached the top 40 in the British and American charts. The single's B-side, "Mother's Pride" was an American airplay success when it peaked at number 46 on airplay-only chart in March 1991.

The third album single (second in the United States), "Freedom! '90", written by Michael, became one of Michael's signature songs. "Freedom! '90" was directed by David Fincher, and featured supermodels Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, and Cindy Crawford lip syncing. It was a great success in the US chart, reaching the top ten and selling more than 500,000 copies, while earning a gold certification from the RIAA. It was the last song from the album to reach the charts in the United States. However, it was less popular in Michael's homeland when it reached the top 40 in 1991.

The next single, "Heal the Pain", also written by Michael, was a contemplative, acoustic guitar-based love song. It was the fourth of five singles from the album. It entered the UK chart in February 1991 and peaked at number 31, but it did not chart in the US. The fifth and last single from the album, "Cowboys and Angels", became the only single released by Michael in his career that did not reach the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. It peaked at number 45. The song's low sales figures were not a surprise as it was the last single to be released from the album. Each single had finished lower than its predecessor and Cowboys and Angels continued the descent. In the US, a promo single was sent to radio in April 1991 for "Soul Free", called the Special Radio Edit. Despite some airplay, it also did not chart.

The album sold approximately eight million copies,[2] a disappointing number compared to the 20 million copies of Faith. Sales were particularly poor in the United States, where Faith had been the best-selling album of 1988. At two million copies sold, Listen Without Prejudice was a commercial disappointment for a successful artist. The album entered the Billboard 200 at number 22 and finally reached number two, blocked from the top by MC Hammer's Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em. The album spent the rest of 1990 in the top ten, with a total of 42 weeks in the entire chart—fewer than half the 87 weeks spent by Faith.

In the UK, the album was a huge success, eclipsing sales of Faith. Listen Without Prejudice debuted there at number one, where it remained for a week. It stayed at number two for the following two weeks. It spent 34 consecutive weeks in the top 20, and jumped from number 13 to number three in its 24th week. It spent a total of 88 weeks in the UK Albums Chart, and was certified platinum four times by the BPI on 2 January 1992. The 2017 re-released edition peaked at #1 in the UK charts, and sold 56,088 copies in its first week there.[17]

The album produced five UK hit singles, all of which were released in quick succession, within an eight-month period. These were "Praying for Time" (which reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart—his final US number one hit as a solo artist), "Waiting for That Day", "Cowboys and Angels", "Freedom", and "Heal the Pain".

For those of us too young for the plague years—who can imagine, at least, a life lived instead of convulsing in agony on a hospital bed—chastising Michael for leaning on elegies and ballads in 1990 strikes me as glib. In its original form, Listen Without Prejudice, Vol.1 was the follow-up that Faith demanded; in this new incarnation, it’s a miscellany unruffled by notions of coherence, an attempt to make art out of George Michael’s quarrels with himself.[12]

In 2010, the album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[18] In a positive appraisal of the album's 2017 deluxe reissue, Pitchfork writer Alfred Soto situated the album in the context of the then-burgeoning HIV/AIDS pandemic: "[George Michael] understood black music as the product of a familiarity with death leavened by the banalities of earth: love, sex, comfort. Something was happening that autumn to gay artists closeted from their fans. In October [1990], Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe released Behaviour, the quietest album of the Pet Shop Boys’ career. The unceasing piling up of bodies killed by HIV had made, for the moment, the bacchanal into a gauche if not repulsive gesture of sentimentality." [12]

Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 was reissued in October 2017 as Listen Without Prejudice / MTV Unplugged.[19][20] The 2CD version includes the original remastered album on the first disc, and the MTV Unplugged concert recorded at Three Mills Studios, London on 11 October 1996 on the second disc.[19]MTV Unplugged noticeably contains performances of "I Can't Make You Love Me" and "The Strangest Thing" that are identical to those previously released as b-sides to the single "Older". The MTV Unplugged CD also features the 2017 version of "Fantasy", reworked by Nile Rodgers and released as a single in September 2017.[19] The Deluxe Edition includes two more discs: a CD with B-sides, remixes and rarities, and a DVD with a documentary and music videos.[20] Rarities on the third disc include: "If You Were My Woman" (recorded live at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert in 1988 and featured on the "Praying for Time" single), "Crazy Man Dance" ("Too Funky"'s B-side) and "Do You Really Want to Know" and "Happy" (from the 1992 charity compilation, Red Hot + Dance).[20] The original remastered album was also reissued on vinyl.[21]

^"Czech Albums – Top 100". ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select 201743 on the field besides the word "Zobrazit", and then click over the word to retrieve the correct chart data. Retrieved 1 November 2017.